Periodic Table Lab
113Nh[286]

Atomic number 113 · Post-transition metal

Nihonium Nh

Nihonium was discovered at Japan's RIKEN and is the first element discovered and named in Asia. Its name comes from Nihon, a Japanese name for Japan. The RIKEN team spent the better part of nine years firing beams at their target to identify just three atoms.

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Key properties

Atomic number113
Atomic weight[286] (No stable isotope; mass number of a representative isotope in brackets)
CategoryPost-transition metal
Group13
Period7
Blockp
State (25 °C, 1 atm)Solid (Predicted)
Melting point—
Boiling point—
Density—
Electronegativity (Pauling)—
Atomic radius (van der Waals)—
First ionization energy—
Electron affinity—
Oxidation states—
Discovered2004

Electron configuration

Condensed
[Rn]5f14 6d10 7s2 7p1
Full
1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 3d10 4s2 4p6 4d10 4f14 5s2 5p6 5d10 5f14 6s2 6p6 6d10 7s2 7p1
Electrons per shell
2 · 8 · 18 · 32 · 32 · 18 · 3

Orbital diagram

1s2↑↓
2s2↑↓
2p6↑↓↑↓↑↓
3s2↑↓
3p6↑↓↑↓↑↓
3d10↑↓↑↓↑↓↑↓↑↓
4s2↑↓
4p6↑↓↑↓↑↓
4d10↑↓↑↓↑↓↑↓↑↓
4f14↑↓↑↓↑↓↑↓↑↓↑↓↑↓
5s2↑↓
5p6↑↓↑↓↑↓
5d10↑↓↑↓↑↓↑↓↑↓
5f14↑↓↑↓↑↓↑↓↑↓↑↓↑↓
6s2↑↓
6p6↑↓↑↓↑↓
6d10↑↓↑↓↑↓↑↓↑↓
7s2↑↓
7p1↑

Electron configurations of some superheavy elements (beyond 103) are theoretical predictions.

Position in the table

HHeLiBeBCNOFNeNaMgAlSiPSClArKCaScTiVCrMnFeCoNiCuZnGaGeAsSeBrKrRbSrYZrNbMoTcRuRhPdAgCdInSnSbTeIXeCsBaLaCePrNdPmSmEuGdTbDyHoErTmYbLuHfTaWReOsIrPtAuHgTlPbBiPoAtRnFrRaAcThPaUNpPuAmCmBkCfEsFmMdNoLrRfDbSgBhHsMtDsRgCnNhFlMcLvTsOg57–7189–103

Discovery

In 2003 a Dubna–Livermore collaboration bombarded americium-243 with calcium-48 to make element 115, and in 2004 reported element 113 among its decay products.

Meanwhile Kosuke Morita's team at RIKEN pursued element 113 directly, fusing zinc-70 ions with a bismuth-209 target. The odds of success were tiny, so the beam ran for long periods. Experiments begun in 2003 detected single atoms in July 2004 and April 2005, and a third in August 2012. That third atom decayed through a chain ending in well-known nuclei, providing decisive evidence.

In December 2015 IUPAC credited RIKEN with the discovery, and the proposed name nihonium became official on 28 November 2016, together with the names for elements 115, 117 and 118.

Origin of the name

The name derives from Nihon (日本), a Japanese name for Japan that can be read as 'land of the rising sun'. The symbol is Nh. In 1908 the Japanese chemist Masataka Ogawa claimed element 43 and proposed 'nipponium', but the claim did not stand; a century later, Japan placed a name of similar meaning on the periodic table.

Main uses

  • Basic research: It has no uses outside science.
  • Historical significance: As the first element found outside Europe, North America and Russia, it is a landmark for Asian science. It sits in group 13 below thallium and is predicted to resemble it, but chemical experiments remain very limited.

Isotopes

There are no stable isotopes. The longest-lived, nihonium-286, has a half-life of around ten seconds and was seen in the decay chain of element 117. Nihonium-278, made directly at RIKEN, has a half-life of about two milliseconds and is the lightest and shortest-lived known isotope.

In everyday life

It does not exist in nature; only a few atoms at a time are made in accelerators and they decay almost immediately, so it has no connection with daily life or health.

Good to know

  • Nihonium was the first element discovered and named in Asia.
  • RIKEN identified three atoms over nearly nine years of experiments.
  • Its name comes from Nihon, a Japanese name for Japan.

Same group (13)

BBoronAlAluminiumGaGalliumInIndiumTlThallium

Data sources · Properties: PubChem Periodic Table (US NIH/NLM public data) · Atomic weights: CIAAW 2024 abridged standard atomic weights · Names: Wikidata (CC0); Korean names follow the Korean Chemical Society. Retrieved 2026-09-23.